...'fire' does not matter, 'earth' and 'air' and 'water' do not
matter. 'I' do not matter. No word matters. But man forgets reality
and remembers words. The more words he remembers, the cleverer do his
fellows esteem him. He looks upon the great transformations of the
world, but he does not see them as they were seen when man looked upon
reality for the first time. Their names come to his lips and he smiles
as he tastes them, thinking he knows them in the naming.
-- Siddartha, _Lord_of_Light_ by Roger Zelazny
If a man remembers what is right at the sign of profi is ready to lay
down his life in the face of danger, and does not forget sentiments he
has repeated all his life when he has been in straitened circumstances
for a long time, he may be said to be a complete man....